Study shows student reading improves with Experience Corps volunteers

EMILY GUEVARA

Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, April 7, 2009

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Pearl Ford watches Samyra Porter, 6, finish a puzzle at Travis Elementary on Tuesday. The duo are part of a special program that matches retirees with students in need of tutoring.
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise less

Pearl Ford watches Samyra Porter, 6, finish a puzzle at Travis Elementary on Tuesday. The duo are part of a special program that matches retirees with students in need of tutoring.
Guiseppe Barranco/The ... more

Study shows student reading improves with Experience Corps volunteers

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Roberto Cejia slowly scrawled out the letters of his name.

"R-O-B," said volunteer Joyce Morris as he wrote the letters one by one.

Cejia, a Travis Elementary School kindergartener, started to get a little distracted, turning to the side and holding up his piece of paper.

"You want me to take you to your class?" said Morris softly. "Now you better write your name."

Cejia is one of three students in Valerie Wallace's kindergarten class who participate in the Experience Corps tutoring program. With just a little bit of lag in his English skills and a need for encouragement, Cejia has blossomed under Morris' tutelage, Wallace said.

"They come back happy," Wallace said. "(With) the kids, one-on-one is so much better."

A study released Tuesday found that the Experience Corps program has significant positive effects on a child's reading ability. The study conducted by Washington University researchers was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of four groups that fund the Experience Corps program.

Researchers tracked the progress of more than 800 first-, second- and third-graders at 23 elementary schools in New York, Boston and Port Arthur. Port Arthur was one of five cities where the program began and one of two programs in Texas. Beaumont ISD is the other, said Stephanie Lartigue Pearson, director of Experience Corps for Southeast Texas.

Researchers found that the students who worked with Experience Corps tutors showed 60 percent more progress in two critical reading areas, according to a news release about the study. Those areas were sounding out new words and reading comprehension.

Experience Corps is a national program that brings older, retired Americans into the schools to work with students on reading skills. The program, founded in 1995, operates in 23 cities and serves around 20,000 students.

Locally, it operates at all eight elementary schools in Port Arthur and six of Beaumont's 19 elementary schools, Pearson said.

"It's great for the volunteers, but it's great for the students as well," Pearson said.

Volunteers work five hours a day, three days a week and receive a small stipend for their time, Pearson said.

Teachers select students who are in need of extra help and the students spend between 30 and 45 minutes three times a week with the tutor.

In addition to being the foundation for virtually all academic endeavors, reading is also where public school students face their first hurdle in terms of state testing. Third-graders must pass the reading test to advance to the fourth -grade.

"If a child cannot read they are going to struggle in every content area because the reading just becomes so much more difficult," said Sarah Crippen, director of English, Language Arts and Reading for the Texas Education Agency's curriculum division.

Crippen said she saw a renewed focus in the late 1990s to "truly teach every child how to read."

That has translated into strong performances on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills reading test, particularly at the third-grade level, she said. Nine of every 10 third-graders passed the reading tests administered in early March, according to TEA information.

"I think the test scores indicate students are doing well and teachers are making the appropriate interventions," Crippen said.

Wallace, in Port Arthur, said some children just need a little extra push.

Not all of the students attend a pre-k program, so they are not all as prepared as their peers, said Wallace, 53, of Groves.

Some students cannot write, she said. Others may struggle with their colors and still others may just need the emotional support of an adult because they have just left a parent for the first time.

She said the program helped transform one of her students.

"He's becoming a child at school now," said Wallace of one of her Experience Corps students. "He's pleasant now. He wants to work. He wants to learn. He's excited to go read a book."